Rambling off the tracks (original) (raw)
July 3 2010, 00:37
Listens: Julee Cruise, The World Spins
One of the things I really appreciate about German long-distance trains, which make them qualitatively more pleasant to travel in than their English counterparts, is that they have special sealed small-children compartments in each wagon.¹ One of those compartments is earning its keep right now: I can just faintly hear the sounds of irate screaming, just loud enough to be on the cusp of hearing and remind me that I don't have to suffer from it.
Dusk is falling and the air is cooling after a sultry summer's day. A heat-wave is rolling in across Europe; tomorrow it'll be 34°C (that's hot, by Yurpeen standards). We'll spend the weekend grilling meat, celebrating 
nerkitt's birthday, and figuring out how to keep poor mischamute from broiling in his own beautiful pelt. Short walks only, with a quick wash in the river meanwhile, and an air-conditioning unit set up in the living-room.
I've given up coffee again, maybe for the final time. Reading more of Peter Kramer's Against Depression, I've realised that there may be good (or, more accurately, very bad) physiological reasons why caffeine lowers my mood, making me hectic and sharp and sour. Anatomically speaking, long-term depression appears to be a self-reinforcing pattern of permanent and cumulative damage to the parts of the brain that deal with stressful emotions. Having had two bouts of major depression, I am probably already vulnerable and handicapped in my ability to deal with persistent stress, so those who've seen how I react to caffeine won't be at all surprised by the mechanism that makes it bad for me.
And tomorrow Germany plays... uh, Argentina, I think? in the football. 'Schlaaand!